National Adoption Month

I started this blog at the 3 month point of our 3-6 month wait to meet our child so sometimes it is hard to keep it adoption focused, especially during the waiting periods. After the struggles we have been through I thought about stopping until we were at a more positive point. However, when we began this journey I wanted to know everything, good and bad, and blogs were a great way for me to read real people's stories so I decided to keep going and share the gory details.

November is National Adoption Month and on behalf of the 85.5 million adopted children in the U.S. (and the 26,000 who will age out of the foster care system each year) I thought it deserved a post. I found the following list on an adoption blog I read and while I'm not totally there yet, I agree with a lot of the list.

You know you are an adoptive parent when....

1. The fact that there are 143 million children without a parent to kiss them goodnight has made you lose sleep.

2. You realize that DNA has nothing to do with love or family.

3. The fact that if 7% of people adopted 1 child there would be no orphans in the world is convicting to you.

4. You spend free time surfing blogs about families who have experienced the blessing of adoption.

5. It drives you crazy when people talk of an adopted child's "real" parents.

6. You have ever been "pregnant" with your adoptive child longer than it takes an elephant to give birth. (2 years!)

7. You had no idea how you could afford to adopt but stepped out in faith anyway, knowing where God calls you He will provide.

8. You have ever taken an airplane ride half-way around the world with a child you just met.

9. You believe God's heart is for adoption.

10. You realize that welcoming a child into your heart and family is one of the most important legacies you could ever leave on this earth.

11. You know what the word Dossier means and you can actually pronounce it.

12. You have welcomed a social worker into the most private parts of your life.

13. You shudder when people say your child is so lucky that you are adopting them, knowing full well you are the blessed one to be welcoming him or her into your life.

-Author Unknown

With Christmas coming I often think about the kids whose family's don't have enough money for presents. This year I know I will be thinking about the kids who don't even have a family. Here are some ways to help out.

J.K. Rawlings' The Tales of Beedle the Bard is coming out on December 4th. All net proceeds will go to Children's High Level Group, which helps children in Eastern Europe, a group of orphans that is particularly special to me.

If you are a family that likes to donate to a charity each year, HelpUsAdopt.org is a financial grant assistance program that helps families afford adoption. No you are not writing a check directly to me :)


If you are just interested in learning more CBS is having the 10th annual adoption special Home for the Holidays on December 23rd at 7 pm.

Here are some ideas about how to promote adoption in your community, schools, and workplace.

Smokescreen

Brian and I experienced a rare Saturday with no plans. We took advantage of it by cashing in Brian's birthday gift from Maren and Ken - dinner at Osaka. A note to the easily embarrassed, if you celebrate your birthday at Osaka you will be forced to wear this mask while a birthday song is played on the loud speaker and the lights flash.After dinner we went to Dawn's Corner Bar in Dundas for a Smokescreen show. Ken is a roadie for the band so they spend a lot of time following them around. I had been feeling like a bad sister since I had only been to one show. It's not because I don't like the band, they are great, it has more to do with the typically busy Saturdays. If you are ever South of the cities check them out.
On a side note, I lost my camera charger. It has been traumatic!! On the way out the door I grabbed a very old disposable camera with a few pictures left. Judging by the picture quality the film was way expired but I ended up with some fun random pictures like this.

Wicked

Maren gave us our Christmas present early this year - tickets to the show Wicked at the Orpheum. We all agreed it was a really fun show. Thanks Maren!

Birthdays That End in (N)0

No one likes them but if we are lucky we all have them and they definitely deserve to be celebrated. Happy Birthday Tracy!!

We had dinner at Azia - great sushi.

Viva Las Vegas

Jen and Martin got married Vegas style and invited us to join them. The wedding took place at The Little Church of the West with a swanky reception at Panevino. It was the first trip the high school girls took the boys along. It was fun to have Brian with and get to know the other husbands better. We spent time exploring the strip, did some gambling, saw the baby dolphin, had a fancy dinner at Joe's Steakhouse, danced at Harrah's outside bar, and sang along with dueling pianos.
Brian and I were one of the last to leave so we had some time to walk the strip and ended the trip with a slot tourney that I won!
In adoption news we are re-registered in Perm with a different coordinator. Our agency thinks that might have been part of our problem since in the Perm region it is all about who you know. I think they were a little surprised to hear we were dropped off a few hours away with a cell phone and a local interpreter who knows nothing about adoption. We are a little skeptical but have our fingers crossed. The bad news is we probably won't hear anything until January or February. This kid may not get to hear the story about 10 hours of labor but there might be a January in Siberia story.

So who did you vote for?

Kidding. Kind of. I'm wasting time blogging because I can't make up my mind who to vote for in the Minnesota senate race. What an embarrassing campaign. Senator Coleman had my vote until recently. I like that he is a democrat turned republican - got to love someone who can see both sides. I like that he was one of the only Republican senators to vote against the troop increase in Iraq. He helped a fellow Russian adoptive couple with some last minute paperwork just in time for court. But then all the scandals. I just can't help but agree "where there is smoke coming out of more than one window, there is probably fire." We learned from Senator Kerry's presidential campaign that your wife is definitely not off limits. My other choice is Al Franken? Also not perfect and most of his mistakes were in front of a national audience. Seems a little too Jesse Venturaesque to me. Seriously the most expensive senate campaign in MN history in the middle of an economic crisis - I wonder how many foreclosed homes each of those obnoxious commercials could have saved. I think I will have to "throw away" my vote on the independent Dean Barkley. O.k. thanks for letting me vent. I'm going to vote.


Politics aside whether you believe in global warming, globalclimatescam.com, or in good old fashioned Indian Summer, 70 degree November weather is a gift. Luckily I knew where to find some peeps to play outside with me.

Happy Halloween

Friday night Brian and I got to trick-or-treat with Bobofat, Jengafat, and Cinderella. We tried to take Abby the hot dog too but flashlights make her crazy! We talked with our agency last week and they reaffirmed that we weren't inappropriate for turning down those referrals. That made me feel better since I spent the last week feeling like a horrible person.

The next step - our agency will talk to the people in Russia and see what our options are. The Russians are on vacation so we don't expect to hear anything until the end of this week.